Project: Baby Boy Quilt

My friend's relative was going to be having a baby boy and she asked for some help to make a quilt. She had tried and with her experience, I chose this pattern and to do it for her.

It's pretty simple half square triangle and a four patch. I decided to sketch it out with the colors I was going to be using and also to get a sense of what sizes I'd need to cut for the squares.

Here were the colors we chose:

I started pinning the four patches on the wall to play around with shapes and contrast:

I then added the half square triangles (always looking back at the design to make sure I was putting them in the right way):

I then sewed the block together to make a row and then sewed two rows together and then the next set of two. A couple reasons why I stopped there for a pause- I decided I was going to do something special for this baby quilt (and something I'd never tried on my new machine before).

I decided to add their baby's name in blue. I had a scrap piece that I tried about 4 times or so on before I did it on the actual block!

Next, I sewed the last row of blocks together and then the two set of two rows together and then the last row on:

And then pressed:

I thought about different ways to quilt it and this is what I settled on:

("x"s in the four patches and then a stitch in the ditch for the half square triangles but I made them continuous lines so I went diagonal with the arrows help)

I basted all the pieces (quilt top, batting, and backing) all together
and started executing the quilting plan:

Stitch in the ditch means you just sew right in the line 

so it's almost invisible except for on the back:

Here's the back view of it all quilted:

And a front(ish) view:

Trimmed after quilting and ready to bind:

Prewashing (bad lighting :( )

All washed and dried front view:

Back view:

Up close on the embroidery of his name:

It is now being well loved by baby boy!

Project: Baby Boy Twin Quilts

What do you do when you have 8 days before a baby shower for twin boys? Find something relatively simple, cute, and classic. Here's the picture I based my quilts off of:

And my sketching out the pattern on my graph paper:

And all the involved math (for those interested) :)

Here are the colors for the two quilts:

And the backing and binding I used:

First quilt pinned up:

Finished quilt top:

Now, deciding how to quilt it wasn't easy but I looked closely at the original for inspiration:

And came up with a version of this:

I basted all three layers together (this one getting the robot backing):

I spaced the lines every 2.5-3" apart and just drew straight lines down the quilt top. Then, when quilting, I serpentined and then did circles offsetting each other and I tried to vary the sizes of them:

Quilting went faster than if I had done a stipple or all over quilting pattern.

All quilted before trimming:

And a close up:

And the back:

I washed it and here it is out of the wash:

Back view:

So, to keep things simple, I did the same pattern but with a different set of fabrics.

Pinned up:

Quilt top made:

Basted all layers together:

Finished quilting:

Close up of the quilting finished:

Binding it up:

Washed and dried:

Back:

Together!

I think these turned out amazing, but I am a bit bias :)

Project: Christmas inspired quilt

After making quilts for my husband's sisters and mother, I received my first complaint from my mother in-law: My father in-law was "stealing" her quilt all the time. SO, the obvious solution became to make him a quilt. I had bought fabric for a quilt a LONG time ago (like, one of the first quilts I was going to do for Christmas 2014). The design is quite simple: a star in a nine patch pattern with white as the stars and Christmas themed fabric for the blocks around it. Here is my inspiration:

And this is how it looks sketched out with an approx. finished dims of 60"x72".

These are the fabrics I had chosen were reds, blues, greens, and whites.

I went ahead and put the blocks onto the design wall before adding the points for the stars to be sure I liked where they all ended up:

Then, I added the squares to make the points for the star by chain piecing:

Next, I put the blocks together as a nine patch and then put the blocks together:

All basted and ready to quilt:

Up close of the front quilting:

Up close of the back:

Adding the binding:

Prewash:

After the wash:

It was well received and will be well loved :)